Keybow Kit (3-key)

by Pimoroni

Keybow MINI is a 3-key version of our wildly-popular Keybow mini mechanical keyboard. Like its older sibling, Keybow MINI has RGB-illuminated, hot-swap, mechanical switches, and clear key caps. It's the perfect way to add a tiny macro pad to your desk, or to use as a little osu! controller.

This kit has everything you need (just add a Raspberry Pi Zero WH and micro-SD card) to build your own mini macro pad. It comes with your choice of clicky (Gold) or linear (Silver) Kailh Speed switches, and clear DSA-profile key caps that look incredible when lit up with the per-key RGB lighting. The fancy hot-swap Kailh sockets mean that there's absolutely no soldering required!

Kit includes*

  • Keybow MINI PCB
  • Switch plate
  • Three Kailh Speed switches (Gold or Silver)
  • Three clear DSA-profile key caps
  • Acrylic baseplate
  • Fixings and feet
  • Micro-USB cable (50cm)
  • Comes in a reusable mini kit box

*Just add a Raspberry Pi Zero WH and micro-SD card

It works great for media controls: map the keys to volume down / mute / volume up or previous track / play-pause / next track. You can use it as an osu! controller too. Or why not make some really complex multi-step macros to automate common tasks like opening a new email and pasting in some boilerplate text?

Keybow MINI works great with a Raspberry Pi Zero WH (with pre-soldered header), using the Zero's USB HID gadget mode so that it appears as a real keyboard when plugged into your computer with the included USB cable. We've built a completely custom, stripped-down, RAM-disk-based Keybow OS with a Lua interface to customise the layout and lighting on your Keybow MINI. It's Windows, Mac, and Linux-compatible.

Keybow MINI features

  • Per-key RGB LEDs (APA102)
  • Kailh hot-swap switch sockets (for Cherry MX-compatible switches)
  • 40-pin female header
  • I2C and SPI breakout header for add-ons
  • Custom Keybow OS
  • Compatible with Raspberry Pi 3B+, 3, 2, B+, A+, Zero, and Zero W
  • Assembled size: 68.5x31.75x39mm
  • Pinout

Construction

The Keybow MINI PCB has a 40-pin female header, like a regular pHAT, that plugs onto the 40-pin male header on the Raspberry Pi Zero W. The Pi is attached to the acrylic baseplate, and the whole thing is rigidly held together by metal standoffs. Rubber feet on the baseplate stop Keybow MINI from slipping around on your desk.

Check out our tutorial for all the details on how to build your Keybow MINI.

Mechanical switches

Keybow MINI comes with your choice of Kailh Speed Gold (clicky) or Silver (linear, non-clicky) switches. Both switches are light and smooth, and the gold switches have a satisfying click when pressed.

We've chosen clear DSA key caps for Keybow MINI, as they show off the per-key RGB LEDs really well. The slightly frosted finish on the clear key caps diffuses the light beautifully. Being DSA, the caps have a flat profile that suits the small size of Keybow MINI.

The switches slot into the PCB switch plate to hold them securely, and then push into the Kailh hot-swap sockets on the Keybow MINI PCB. This means that there's no soldering required, and you can easily change out the switches in the future, if you wish.

Note that if you want to use different switches with Keybow MINI, then you'll need to ensure that they have a recess on the underside for surface-mount LEDs.

Lighting

We've used the same tiny APA102 RGB LEDs that we use on our Picade Plasma PCBs, and there's one under each of the three keys. The LEDs sit in the cavity on the underside of the switch and shine up through, into the key cap.

There's a nifty way to light and animate the LEDs on Keybow MINI. You can create a PNG file with a coloured gradient or pattern, and it will be animated across the LEDs from the top of the image to the bottom. The width of the PNG determines how it's displayed.

You can manually set the LEDs on one or more keys, overriding the animation, or have them only light up when pressed.

There's a bunch of example animations to use, or you can create your own in your favourite graphics program.

Key mappings and layouts

The power of Keybow MINI is in how customisable it is. You can map each of the three keys to whichever keyboard keys you want, or even have them trigger a whole series of keypresses or strings of text to be entered.

Our Keybow software uses the on-the-go micro-USB port on the Raspberry Pi Zero W and USB HID gadget mode, so that it appears as a regular USB keyboard device when plugged into a computer.

The custom, stripped-down OS runs on a RAM-disk, meaning that it boots and runs quickly, it's robust against being unplugged, and there's no risk of SD card corruption.

To customise your Keybow MINI layout and lighting, just pop the micro-SD card out and edit the keys.lua file on your computer.

Note that you'll need to add keybow.use_mini() to the setup function in your key layout file to remap the keys to Keybow MINI's smaller layout, and use handle_minikey_xx for the name of each mapped key's function.

You can read how to set up the Keybow OS and how to create your own macros and key layouts here on our learning portal.

32 customer reviews

2 years ago
Fun way to make use of a raspberry pi zero. Simple minimal operating system and good example code make this easy to customize.
by Anonymous about Keybow Kit (3-key) via REVIEWS.io
2 years ago
Great build quality and a lovely little product. Very easy to set up and config your own bindings. Perfect for a video on/off and mute button on Teams. Downside is how the boot time of the Zero W affects the keyboard (it down 10:ish seconds when I switch source with KVM) and some issues with my KVM since it identifies the keybow as a data transferring unit.
by Linus about Keybow Kit (3-key) via REVIEWS.io
2 years ago
Much to my wife's bemusement, I have set this up to act as an additional input for Elite Dangerous. She giggles at it, but is secretly jealous. Using a 1st gen Pi Zero (with GPIO pins added via a Hammer Header) this was very easy to assemble and configure. There are enough config examples to create your own if you are familiar with editing config files, and the documentation does a good job for those who are not. The software is all held on the device, running a cut down Linux OS so small I'm using an old 128MB SD card. There's nothing to install on the computer you're plugging it into and it's designed to run from memory so there's no risk of file corruption when unplugged. The 'clicky' version is indeed very clicky and feels pretty robust.
by Adrian about Keybow Kit (3-key) via REVIEWS.io
3 years ago
Very cool when it works, but stops sending key presses after a couple of hours. I have to unplug and re plug to get it to work again. Re flashed the SD several times, and switched Pi zeros, but always the same. Not really very useful in its current state, maybe after a software update.
by Anonymous about Keybow Kit (3-key) via REVIEWS.io
3 years ago
Great little project, finished in an afternoon. However now I wanna play with lua coding and see how far I can take it!
by Anonymous about Keybow Kit (3-key) via REVIEWS.io
3 years ago
I bought the kit as a keyboard extension for my wife. The build was very good documented and easy to do. As stated in the shop description, all I had to add was a raspberry pi zero and an SD card. It required no electronics knowledge to assemble the kit. After configuring the keymap, the keypad works great. It takes about 5 to 10 seconds to boot, which is absolutely no issue.
by David about Keybow Kit (3-key) via REVIEWS.io
3 years ago
Finally, I can mute my teams meeting by using this fancy little keyboard. Programming the device wasn't a hustle at all. Thanks for helping making my life easier.
by Andreas about Keybow Kit (3-key) via REVIEWS.io
4 years ago
Great product that made creating my project really easy. Speedy delivery and great service as always. Well built kit and easy to set up.
by Andrew about Keybow Kit (3-key) via REVIEWS.io
4 years ago
Excellent tactile feel, colors look great! Switches can be used without the OS LED, which works for me since I wanted to pair this with the unicorn HAT mini
by Andrew about Keybow Kit (3-key) via REVIEWS.io
4 years ago
Works very nicely and looks great, im using it as part of an electronic music performance rig.
by tam about Keybow Kit (3-key) via REVIEWS.io
5 years ago
This was very easy to put together using the instructions from the Pimoroni website. I had ordered the Raspberry Pi Zero WH (pre-soldered) so I didn't have to worry about soldering anything. Everything fit together perfectly, and it works well. The instructions on the website let me choose the media buttons layout, which lets me rewind, pause, and forward my music.
by Shane about Keybow Kit (3-key) via REVIEWS.io
5 years ago
Well built piece of kit, super easy to connect with raspberry pi. Lights are fun and customisable. Wasn’t able to fulfil my needs with the keybow software but overall impressed.
by Anonymous about Keybow Kit (3-key) via REVIEWS.io
5 years ago
Assembly and programming were very straightforward. I get sore tendons twisting my thumb to press the Ctrl and Alt keys when programming. This kit allows me to add extra keys in a more comfortable location.
by toby about Keybow Kit (3-key) via REVIEWS.io
5 years ago
Really great - love how customisable it is. I've already gone ahead and bought the 12 button version on the back of trying this one
by Harry about Keybow Kit (3-key) via REVIEWS.io
5 years ago
I was up and running with this and a Pi Zero in about 10 minutes. Very easy to use, and love the lua language for writing layouts and macros.
by William about Keybow Kit (3-key) via REVIEWS.io
5 years ago
I ADORE this kit! Put it together in a couple of minutes following the guide, and now learning how to code my own macros. Also, super pleased that I soldered my pi zero w properly :)
by Morgan about Keybow Kit (3-key) via REVIEWS.io
5 years ago
Very good quality, and the switches seems to be vers reliable. Very cheap for this great quality, i loved it
by Allan about Keybow Kit (3-key) via REVIEWS.io
6 years ago
Very well put-together kit, high-quality components (as you would expect from Pimoroni). Great assembly instructions and the software is easy-to-understand. A fine product from the pirates. Arrrrr!
by Michael about Keybow Kit (3-key) via REVIEWS.io
6 years ago
Another lovely bit of kit from Pimoroni. As usual, the aesthetics are stunning. On top of that, it's simple to put together, with simple step-by-step instructions. Customising it is also simple, thanks to a second simple tutorial. Mine's setup for three keys: up-arrow, down-arrow and return, and this is enough to drive a menu-based family calendar that I'm putting together.
by Emma about Keybow Kit (3-key) via REVIEWS.io
6 years ago
Amazing little piece of kit. Easy to assemble and quick to get up and running. Within only a short time I had reprogrammed the keys to do my bidding despite only having limited programming experience. Can't wait to dream up some more ideas of what I can do with this.
by Martin about Keybow Kit (3-key) via REVIEWS.io
6 years ago
Great little component! Exactly the width of the Pi, so sits flush if you are going to build something with the pair. Setup is as complicated as copying a bunch of files onto an SD card, and if you want, it's easy to configure the lights/colours/keys with any text editor.
by Mark about Keybow Kit (3-key) via REVIEWS.io
6 years ago
Fantastic little device and great value for money. I have built myself a Skype for Business push-to-talk solution. The build quality is superb, it's really easy to set up, and the online tutorials were a nice introduction to Lua!
by Samuel about Keybow Kit (3-key) via REVIEWS.io
6 years ago
Awesome little solid piece of tech. Very easy to install both software and hardware.
by gilemon about Keybow Kit (3-key) via REVIEWS.io

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